Australian Maritime Boundaries 2020: Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Zones

Geoscience Australia's Australian Maritime Boundaries 2020 dataset provides a digital representation of Australia's scheduled and offshore areas as defined under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006. The data covers the entire Australian marine jurisdiction, including waters adjacent to the mainland, offshore islands, and External Territories, with coordinates in the GDA94 datum. This version incorporates updates such as the 2018 Timor Sea Treaty.

Use Cases

• Delineating offshore petroleum exploration zones based on the scheduled areas defined in the Act.
• Mapping maritime jurisdiction for legal and regulatory compliance based on the territorial sea baseline and outer limits.
• Analyzing the geographic extent of Australia's marine claims for international relations and treaty verification.
• Updating GIS systems with the 2018 Timor Sea Treaty boundaries mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Published by Geoscience Australia in consultation with other Commonwealth agencies, suggesting authoritative sourcing.
• Covers a defined geographic extent approximately between 8°S to 70°S and 39°E to 174°E.
• Updated to reflect specific legislative changes, such as the 2018 Timor Sea Treaty.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The description notes that in case of inconsistency, the legislation prevails over the digital data.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, developed in consultation with the Attorney-General's Department, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Australian Hydrographic Office.

Collection Method

Likely digitized from legal definitions and treaties for GIS representation.

Time Range

Currency is noted as August 2019.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-23 01:39:43.380531; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia's marine jurisdiction, including the mainland, offshore islands, and External Territories.